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MUMBAI: Despite being in jail for nearly 12 years after being extradited from Portugal in 2002, gangster Abu Salem’s personal life is on the upswing and his love for drama remains undiminished.

In stuff saccharine Bollywood romances are made of, Salem married the latest love of his life, a woman from Mumbra (Mumbai), on a running train as he was being escorted to Lucknow for a court appearance. The ’nikah’ was read by a kazi in Mumbai over the phone and witness to the wedding were his nephew Rashid Ansari and two sets of amused policemen - one from Mumbai and the other from Lucknow.

When Mumbai Mirror contacted Ansari, he refused to comment on the wedding. "Please keep me away from his personal matters. Whenever we speak we speak only on legal issues," he said.

Very little is known about the woman, 27, who is often spotted at the TADA court, where several cases against Salem are being heard.

The buzz, however, is that she now controls whatever little business interests the gangster has in Mumbai.

The train wedding took place on January 8 when Salem was taken to Lucknow to appear in a case connected with one of the fake passports he was in possession of at the time of the extradition.

While none of the senior cops in Mumbai were willing to go on record on the wedding, which is being seen as a security breach, they said the police team’s responsibility was to escort Salem safely to Lucknow and back.

"What he does on the train, who he talks to, is none of the cops’ business," said an officer.

Salem has always led a colourful life. He was last married to starlet Monica Bedi, who too was extradited from Portugal along with him. Bedi has, however, maintained that she was never married to him.

Why Salem chose to wed on a train when he could have applied to court for permission to arrange the ceremony in more conventional environs in Mumbai can be explained on two counts - one, a desire to keep the nuptials under the wraps, and two, his love for adventure.

One of Salem’s legal advisors said the woman met him during court hearings, which she used to attend religiously.

"They fell in love during these meetings and soon she was attending the hearings in Delhi and Lucknow too," he said.

Salem, 46, who was extradited to India in 2002, is being tried in a series of cases, including the murders of music baron Gulshan Kumar and Manisha Koirala’s secretary Pradeep Jain.

He is also an accused in the unsuccessful attempts on the lives of filmmakers Rakesh Roshan and Rajeev Rai.